Road machine



June 15 1926.

F. R. JONES ROAD MACHINE Filed Oct. 1; 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN ENTOR June 5, 1926. 1,588,837

' F. R. JONES ROAb MACHINE Filed Oct. 1, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 "INVENTOR Patented June 15, 1926.

- UNITED STATEfi FORREST It. JONES, OF KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE.

ROAD MACHINE. i h i Application filed Gotober 1, 1924:. Serial No. 741,052.

My invention comprises a roadway vehicle combined with a manually operable mechanism for completely and promptly controlling the gravitat-ive discharge of a load of roadway material while the vehicle is either travelling along or standing still on a roadway. The road *ay material may be either the screened or unscreened product of a rock crusher, and may contain pieces as large as four inches maximum dimension, or even larger, alone or mixed with smaller sizes including sand and dust, or the material may be either sand or dust alone.

The primary object is to provide, without using any mechanical drive, manually operable means to regulate the rate ofv discharge and to completely stop the discharge of the material at any instant while the machine either travelling or at rest on the roadway.

A. secondary object is to provide means to smooth the surface 01. the material dropped from the machine into holes of the roadway surface, the dropping and smoothing of the material both. being accomplished while the machine, without stopping, is passing over the hole, thus preparing the newly deposited uiiaterial for smooth riding tra'llic before any of the material is scattered or compressed by the traffic. Since the mechanism completely cuts off the discharge, there is no dribbling oi the material over the good parts of the roadway. The machine can also be used to drop a load of roadway material smoothly and of uniform thickness on an extensive area of a roadway suri ace'while the machine continues travelling at either a uni form or a. variable speed.

I attain these objects by the mechanism illulstriited in the accon'ipanying drawings, in

Fig. 1 is a side view of the new device combined. with an automobile chassis repre SGl'itGCl in outline; Fig. 2 is a top view partly broken away in order to show parts which would otherwise be hidden; Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail showing an additional member; F 4 is a rear view of the upper part; Fig. 5 is a side view detail of a modification including an additional member; 6 is a rear-view detail, partly broken away, of the members shown in Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a side view of av modified form of part of the mechanism, partly broken away; Fig. 8' is a rear view of the parts also shown in Fig. 7, partly in section; Fig. 9 is a sectional View oi some of parts of Fig. 8 on the plane 99;

'mob.ile chassis towhich the new parts of the mechanism are closely related are the prevents material from dropping through Fig. 10 is a modification of some of the parts shown in Figs. 7 and 8; Fig. 11 shows a generally modified form of the mechanism, with some of the parts partly broken away for clearness of representation; Fig. 12 is a diagrammatic representation of the relative positions of certain parts of Fig. 11.

In Figs. 1 and 2 the. members of the autosidcl'ars A and B, the rear road-wheels C and D, and the crossbar E which connects the sidebars to the rear-axle housing. The upper part of each of the rear road-wheels is broken away.

Upon-the rear ends of the sidebars A and B is rigidly "fastened av bracket 1 also rigidly fastened to a hopper-type body 2. An anglebar brace 3 is fastened in an upright position to the sidebar A and to the inclined front part of the body. A corresponding angle-bar brace (not visible in the drawing) is fastened to the sidebar B and to the body. These two braces and the bracket 1 together entirely support the body 2.

In the bottom of the body are four outlet openings, at, 5, 6 and 7. The walls of the opening l are in the tor-mot a chute 8 to which is hinged the ends of a trough-shaped cutoii 9 by means of two coaxial hinge-pins 1G and 10 (Fig. 6). The cutoff 9 is for regulating the rate of discharge from the body, and for completely cutting off the discharge without dribbling. I

Cutoll' 9, shown by solid lines in its discharge position in Fig. 1, is joined by means of a connecting-rod 11 to a control handle 12 fulcrumed on a rod 13 supported by a bracket 14 rigidly mounted on the sidebar A. The connecting-rod 11 is hinge-connected to the lower end of the handle 12 by means of a hinge-pin 15 and to a lug 16 of the cutott 9 by a hinge-pin 17. Moving the handle 12 from its solid-line position to its broken-line position (Fig. 1) swings the cuto'l'l 9 from its solid-line position to its ln'oken-line retaining position under the chute 8, in which latter position the cutoff the outlet opening 4:.

The outlet opening 5 has for its control mechanism a chute 18 (Fig. 6), a cutoif 19, a. connecting-rod .20, a hinge-pin 21, av handle 22'and a hinge pin 22 all of which are respectively similar to the parts of the control mechanism for the outlet opening 4:.-

The handle 22 is fulcrumed on the rod 13 also used as a fulcrum for the handle 12. In Fig. 2 the line VV represents the median plane relative to which the entire new mechanism is symmetrical. This plane V-V is perpendicular to the axis of the rear road-wheel axle at the middle of the axle. The mechanism for controlling the dropping of roadway material through the outlet openings 6 and 7 is a symmetrical duplicate, relative to the medial plane V V, of the mechanism described above herein for the control of the dropping of material through the outlet openings 4 and 5.

f the mechanism for controlling the dropping of material through the outlet openings 6 and 7, the parts which are shown in Fig. 2 are :-The cutoffs 23 and 24; the connecting-rods 25 and 26; the hinge-pins 27 and 28; the handles 29 and 30; the hingepins 31 and 32; the rod 33; and the bracket 34.

The body 2 is divided into two compartments by the vertical partition plane 35, so that different kinds of materials can be carried separately at the same time.

A seat 36 is of a dimension, in the direction of the sidebars A and B, sufiicient to accommodate a truck driver and two operators, the latter swinging the cutoffs on their hinges. A cross-bar 37 is bolted to the sidebars A and B so as to serve as a footrest for the two operators.

A drag-bar 38 is connected to the rear part of the body 2 by means of four chains, 39, 40, 41 and -12, together with two eyebolts 43 and a l threaded into the drag-bar, one of the eye-bolts near each end of the drag-bar, and two eye-bars 45 and 46, one on each side of the body 2. The two chains 39 and 40 alone serve to trail the drag-bar in its solid-line position behind the body when the roadway surface is level or not inclined sidewise, but when the roadway is inclined sidewise one of the diagonal chains acts to prevent the drag-bar from creeping toward the lower side of the roadway. Thus if the roadway surface slopesdownward in the direction from sidebar B to sidebar A, then the diagonal chain ll prevents the drag-bar from swinging toward sidebar A.

For transporting the drag-bar 38 during long hauls Without depositing roadway material, the following members are provided near the top of the body 2:-An upper angle-iron 47 and a lower angle-iron 4&8 (Figs. 1 and 4) are fastened together and to the rear wall of the body near the right-hand side by means of the rivets e9. An upright wedge 50 fits freely into suitable slots in the projecting arms of the angle-irons 4-7 and d8. The space between the upper and lower projecting arms is wedge-shaped and of the greatest height at the free ends of the projecting arms. The parts 47, 4:8, it)

and 50 are duplicated respectively by the parts 51, 52, 53 and 54- at the same lever and near the left-hand side of the body. The carrying position of the drag-bar is shown by solid lines in Fig. a, and by the broken-line circle (Fig. 1) tangent to the upper and lower angle-irons 41-7 and and also tan ent to the upright wedge Decrease or the drag-bar diameter due to wear allows the upright wedges 50 and to settle lower so as to hold the drag-bar tightly.

hen a depression in aroauway about to be filled, the machine driven slowly, but not stopped, and an operator sit mg on the seat 36 and facing toward the rear of the machine, watches the roadway surface to determine which cutol'l is to be used for dropping roadway material into the depression. Then, as soon as the machine reaches the proper position, he opens the selected valve-gate by pushing the corresponding handle from its broken-line position in Fig. 1 toward its solid-line position in the same figure and to an extent which is determined by both the rate of travel of the machine and the size of the depression to be filled. As soon sufiicient material has dropped into the depression the operator then swings the cutoil to its retaining position. The machine continues its travel operation just described. As the machine travels further forward, the drag-bar is trailed over the material just dropped and smooths the surface of the material into conformation with the roadway surface around the edge of the filled depression. If a depression to be filled is of large area, then two or more adjacent cutoffs may be operated to fill it. If there are numerous depressions to be filled in a comparatively small area of roadway surface, then two operators can work more eiliciently than one.

The use of the drag-bar as part of the machine is desirable in that when the dragbar is so used it is not necessary to close the road against trafiic and the roadw surface is put into condition for use before any of the uninterrupted tralllc has an opp-on tunity to compact or scatter part the material over the adjacent good surface as is apt to occur if the dropped material is left unsmoothed and unprotected whil awaiting separate means for smoothing. This applies more especially to cases of intense trallic on crowded highways and city streets.

By locating the control handles forward of the seat 36 where they are within reach of the driver, then the latter can act as both driver and operator with the aid of .mirrors placed so that he can see the reflection of the part of the roadway that is under ihe rear part of the machine, which of ad-- vantage when there are only a few depressions to be filled in a very large of roadway surface. This use of mirrors is throughout the analogous to that on automobiles and street cars.

For spreading roadway material smoothly over the surface of a roadway, the location of the control handles forward of the drivers seat is desirable, for then, while the machine is traveling at considerable speed,

thedriver can operate the cutoff thus allowing the material to drop and scatter evenly over the roadway surface, and he can promptly stop the dropping of material whenever desirable. The use of the drag-bar is not necessary in this spreading operation. In order to lock the cutoff 9 in its closed position, a lock-hook is provided (Fig. 3) fastened to the seat 36 by an eye-bolt 56, and hooked into the eye of a screw 57 in the control handle 12.

In Figs. 5 and 6 an apron 58 is rigidly fastened to the lower rear part of the body by capscrews 59. The apron extends downward behind the cutoffs 8 and 18 and serves doubly as a means to prevent scattering of the roadway material during rapid swinging of the cutoffs to the retaining position and as a stop to limit the backward swing of the cutoffs. The apron is thin enough to have considerable elastic yield, and therefore may be utilized as a spring to put stress in the lock-hook 55 in order to hold the lockhook in its locking position and to prevent rattling of the cutoff mechanism.

Themodifications shown in Figs. 7, 8 and 9 relate to the chutes and cutoffs beneath the bottom of the body 2. In these figures the rear wall-plate of the body 2- has a downward extension with two flanges 61 and 62 projecting rearward. The inclined front plate of the body 2 has a downward extension 63 with two flanges 6-1 and 65 projecting forward. A side-plate 66 fastened to the flanges 62 and 64 by countersunk SCIBVVrbOltS 67 and 68, and'a similar side-plate 69 is fastened to the flanges 61 and 65 by the screw-bolts 70 and 71. The four parts, 60, 63, 66 and 69, thus form a chute suitable for any of the outlet openings of the body 2, and this chute is attached to the body 2 by the upward extension of each of the parts 60 and 63.

The cutoff 72 comprises two flat end plates 72 and 72 at the ends of a cylindrically curved bottom-plate 72. For convenience of description the lines where these three plates, 72, 72 and 7 2, are joined together are shown as if the plates ,were fastened only by spot welding-instead of having continuously welded seams. Endplate 72 is hinged to the side-plate 66 by means of the hinge-pin 7 3 supported by the side-plate 66 at one end and at the opposite end by an ear-plate 74 held in place by a space-bar 7 5 and countersunk rivets 76.

r Between the ear-plate 74 and the end-plate 72* is interposed a wasl'ier-shaped ring 77 'manner shown in Figs. 2 and 6.

spot-welded to the end-plate 72 and rotatable on the hinge-pin 73; also a washershaped ring 78, interposed between the sideplate 66 and the end-plate 72", is spotwelded to the hinge-plate 7 and rotatable plate 72 is similarly hinged to the sideplate 69 by means of the ear-plate 7 9, spacebar 80, washer-shaped rings 81 and 82, and a (hidden) hinge-pin like and coaxial with the hinge-pin 7 3. One of the important features of this hinge is that it can be made very thin in the direction of the axis of the hinge-pin 78, thus permitting close grouping of two or more cutoffs end to end after the Other features are that the space bar prevents grit from falling on the rubbing parts of the hinge; also the ear-plate 74., when set to press its lower end against the ring 77 prevents rattling of the cutoff.

The hinge-pin 83 (Figs 7 and 8), for the cute-fl connecting rod 11 (of Fig. 1), passes through an extension 84 of the end-plate 7 2 and through a bracket 85 riveted on the convex surface of the bottomplate 72. The hinge-pin 83 is held in place by means of a lock-pin 86.

In Fig. 10 a. modified hinge-pin 87 for the cut-off connecting rod 11 extends almost completely across the curved bottomplate 72 of the cutoff and has a modified means of supportfor its smaller end. The members of the cutoff shown in part in Fig. 10 are sectional on a plane through the axis of the hinge-pin 87 and radial to the coaxial hinge-pins on which the entire cutoff swings. An end plate 88 has an extension 89 bent in under the bottom plate 72 so as to support the smaller end of the hinge-pin 87. A lock-wedge 90 fits into a transverse groove in the hinge-pin 87 and bears against both the bottom-plate 72 and the side-plate 72", thus' holding the hinge-pin 87 rigidly in place with the lock-wedge and a shoulder of the hinge-pin pressing against opposite sides of the end-plate 72". A radial hole 91 can be used for a cotter-pin as a second means for holding the hinge-pin 87 in place.

The curved bottom-plate 72 (Figs. 8 and' 9) is placed at a considerable distance from the lower end of the chute 60-686669 in order to obviate pinching or biting of pieces of the road material between the edges of the c-urvedplate and the lower end of the chute when the cutoff is operated. The cutofi can therefore be surely and quickly operated provided that the maximum diameter of the largest pieces of road material handled less, by a small amount, than the t distance between the curved bottom-plate and the lower end of the chute.

In Fig. 11 an ordinary trailer chassis is represented by one of its sidebars F, the road-wheels G and H, and the cross-piece J between the sidebars and the axle of the road-wheels. Both of the road-wheels G and II are partly broken away. An ordinary tilting body K is hinged to the sidebars by means of the hingerod L, and the forward end of the body is lifted by an ordinary mechanism consisting of the column M, winding-drum N, handcrank O, sheave I, cable Q and bracket R.

Beneath the rear end of the tilting body K is a cutoff 92 hinged to the body by means of a hinge-pin 93. A lug 94 on the bottom of the cutoff 92 is hinged to a connectingrod 95 by means of a hinge-pin 96. The forward end of this connecting-rod has a hinge-pin 97 which connects the rod to a handle 98 fulcrumed on a rod 99 supported by a bracket 100 rigidly fastened to the Sidebar F.

The bottom of the tilting body K has an opening above the cutoff 92, as shown diagrammatically in Fig. 12 in which a portion of the bottom 101 of the body K, and also of the tailboard 102, are in proper position relative to the cutoff 92 when the latter is in its retaining position. The valve-gate 92 is moved from its retaining position by swinging it clockwise about the hinge-pin 93.

Since the cutoff 92 is sufficiently held by roadway material above it to prevent its swinging from its retaining position during the tilting motion of the body, the use of locking means is not required when there is a substantial amount of roadway material above the cutoff, and when the hinge-pins L, 98 and 96 are located in relative positions substantially as shown in Fig. 11 the moving of the body throughout its range of tilting causes only a slight movement of the handle 98, therefore the handle 98 can be used for operating the cutoff 92 for all positions of the tilting body K while the body is being tiltec; and if the handle 98 is locked in its shown position, then the tilting of the body will not cause the cutofi to swing enough on its hinge-pin 93 to permit dropping of roadway material from the bottom of the body. A cutoff extending across the entire width of the body can be used and may be operated by a handle or handles rigidly fastened to the cutoff and extended so as to be operated by an operator riding on the truck.

A hopper-type body can be mounted forward of the rear wheels of a four-wheel trailer, or forward of the wheels of a twowheel trailer, and then all of the sides of the body may be inclined.

For such a use as distributing ballast between and outside of the rails of a railway track, a ballast car whose body comprises a hopper and three cutoffs is applicable, the middle cutoff for dropping ballast between the rails and the other two cutoffs for dropping ballast outside of the rails on both sides of the track, together with means for smoothing the surface of the dropped bal last. If the railway car has two fourwheel trucks, then its body may comprise more than one hopper, each hopper having its own cutoffs.

As shown in Fig. 7, the distance between the curved bottom-plate 72 and the lower end of the outlet is sufficient to admit an ordinary hand-shovel to remove material from the trough. Part or all of a body full of material can be thus shoveled out. When a cutoff trough relatively larger than that of Fig. 7 is used, as for larger pieces of material, together with the other parts of Fig. 7 unchanged in size or position, then the material can be shoveled out more rapidlv than from the smaller trough. Fig. 12 also shows that material can be similarly shoveled out across the edge of the cutoff trough.

shoveling from the cutoff trough, just described, is convenient when building up a roadway surface against the planks of a bridge or culvert, along the rough edges of gutter stones, and around manholes.

I claim 1. In combination, a roadway vehicle comprising a body for carrying loose in terial, a discharge opening in the lower part of the body, a nonclosing cutoff for retaining material in the body, and means to move the cutoff from its retaining position to its discharge position and then to its retaining position.

2. In combination, a roadway vehicle comprising a body for carrying roadway material, an outlet opening in the lower part of the body, a trough beneath the outlet, means for tilting and uprighting the trough, and means to limit the uprighting motion of the trough.

3. In combination, a roadway vehicle comprising a body for carrying loose material, a discharge opening in the body, a trough beneath the opening, means for tilting and uprighting the trough, andineans to prevent the material from being scattered by the uprighting effect of the trough.

4. In combination, a roadway vehicle comprising a body for carrying loose material, a discharge opening in the body, a trough beneath the opening, means for tilting the trough, and a baffle plate which limits the tilting of the trough to one direction.

5. In combination, a roadway vehicle comprising a body for carrying loose material, a discharge opening in the body, a

trough beneath the opening, means to tilt and upright the trough, and means for the double function of limiting the uprighting motion of the trough and of preventing scattering of the material during theuprighting motion of the trough.

6. In combination, a roadway vehicle comprising a body for carrying loose material, an outlet opening in the lower part of the body, a nonclosing cutoff for retaining material in the body, means to move the cutoff from its retaining position to'its discharge position and then to its retaining position, and means to lock the cutoff in its retaining posit-ion.

7. A road machine comprising a roadway vehicle having a body for carrying loose material, an outlet opening in the body, a nonclosing cutoff for retaining material in the body, means to movethe cutoff from its retaining position to a discharge position and then to its retaining position, and a drag-bar connected from each end to both sides of the body by chains adapted to trail the drag-bar always directly behind the body so as to smooth ready for traflic the surface of material dropped from the body and at the same time to prevent unrestricted traflic from reaching and scattering or compacting any of thematerial before its surface is smoothed by the drag-bar.

' A roadway vehicle comprising a body for carrying loose material, an outlet opening in the body, a nonclosing cutoff for retaining material in the body'and controlling flow from the outlet, a drag-bar connected. from each end to both sides of the body by chains adapted to trail the drag-bar always directly behind the body so as to smooth ready for traflic the surface of material dropped from the body and at the same time to prevent unrestricted traffic from reaching and scattering or compacting any of the material before its surface is smoothed by the drag-bar, and means to rigidly support the drag-bar free of the roadway surface.

FORREST R. JONES. 

